So last night I had a normal yet very vivid dream because I had woke up at 4:00 a.m. and immediately gone back to back and during my first dream I realized "wait this is to crazy to be real, this is probably a dream". And the second I had that thought the dream turned completely black and nothing was there to be seen and I then later moved on to another dream where I was completely unaware that I was in a dream. I'm not sure what happened because I thought that after you realize you're in a dream it becomes a lucid dream, but mine just ended and became completely black. What do you recommend I do to make the dream lucid and not just end?

Lucid dreams can be very strange. Sometimes if feels like your subconscious mind tries to prevent you from having a lucid dream. More than likely you realized you were dreaming and were worried it would end, so your subconscious mind fulfilled your expectation by making you think it had ended.

My most recent dream (the first one in over 14 months) ended very quickly as well, mostly because I didn't stabilize the dream and I was excited and rushing because I was worried it was going to end.

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Lucid dreams can be very strange. Sometimes if feels like your subconscious mind tries to prevent you from having a lucid dream. More than likely you realized you were dreaming and were worried it would end, so your subconscious mind fulfilled your expectation by making you think it had ended.

My most recent dream (the first one in over 14 months) ended very quickly as well, mostly because I didn't stabilize the dream and I was excited and rushing because I was worried it was going to end.

It's weird because I was completely calm and didn't once become excited because the dream had ended the moment I suspected it was a dream. I even imagined myself rubbing my hands, but nothing happened it just was completely black (I didn't even wake up).

Lucid dreams can be very strange. Sometimes if feels like your subconscious mind tries to prevent you from having a lucid dream. More than likely you realized you were dreaming and were worried it would end, so your subconscious mind fulfilled your expectation by making you think it had ended.

My most recent dream (the first one in over 14 months) ended very quickly as well, mostly because I didn't stabilize the dream and I was excited and rushing because I was worried it was going to end.

Sean, I realized I was in a dream for the second time and It blanked out again for whatever reason, I don't know what's going on. I affirmed that it was a dream ("this is a dream"). When I realized I was in a dream I stayed completely calm. Do you have any ideas on what's going on?

This happened to me on of the 12 times I have become lucid. I am rubbing my hands together like crazy but it still fades. Once I stayed clam in the blackness and decided to let myself fall (even though I did not have a dream body), because I usually float when I get lucid. So i felt a falling sensation which stopped and I was flaoting horizontal, then vision returned and I rubbed my legs a few times and had a reasonable lenght lucid dream. I am only a beginner but maybe being creative, and figuring out our own ways to overcome barriers to lucid dreaming is the way forward.

neil wrote:This happened to me on of the 12 times I have become lucid. I am rubbing my hands together like crazy but it still fades. Once I stayed clam in the blackness and decided to let myself fall (even though I did not have a dream body), because I usually float when I get lucid. So i felt a falling sensation which stopped and I was flaoting horizontal, then vision returned and I rubbed my legs a few times and had a reasonable lenght lucid dream. I am only a beginner but maybe being creative, and figuring out our own ways to overcome barriers to lucid dreaming is the way forward.

Thanks for sharing this with me, I'm going to try just stay conscious and let it play out like you did. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who has/has had this problem.

MysticalMeadows, this has happened to me in many lucid dreams! Even when I am able to maintain some level of lucidity, it never seems to last throughout the entire dream.

Sean Jacobs wrote:Hi MysticalMeadows.

Lucid dreams can be very strange. Sometimes if feels like your subconscious mind tries to prevent you from having a lucid dream. More than likely you realized you were dreaming and were worried it would end, so your subconscious mind fulfilled your expectation by making you think it had ended.

Agreed, it does seem as though the subconscious mind prevents it for whatever reason. What happens commonly for me is I will suspect that I'm dreaming, and in that moment I will "wake up" in the dream, convinced that I'm no longer dreaming and alas, no longer lucid. Ergh.

My most recent dream (the first one in over 14 months) ended very quickly as well, mostly because I didn't stabilize the dream and I was excited and rushing because I was worried it was going to end.

This is another thing that has happened to me. In my first lucid dream as an adult, I was in this colorful pixelated world. I realized I was lucid right away - everything became so much brighter. I was so excited, the only thing I could think to do was flip in the air. That's when the world began to shake and I woke up.

Funny side note, I was reading about lucid dreaming prior to having the one described above. Features like brightness at lucidity, colorful worlds, flipping, and vibrating/shaking scenery were all things I had read were common in LDs.

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."— Ralph Waldo Emerson